Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Mortgage applications decreased 1.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 13, 2016.
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The Refinance Index increased 1 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 6 percent from one week earlier to the lowest level since February 2016. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 6 percent compared with the previous week and was 12 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
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The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) remained unchanged at 3.82 percent, with points unchanged at 0.34 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate was unchanged from last week. emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows the refinance index since 1990.

Refinance activity was higher in 2015 than in 2014, but it was still the third lowest year since 2000.

Refinance activity increased a little this year when rates declined.

The second graph shows the MBA mortgage purchase index.

According to the MBA, the unadjusted purchase index is 12% higher than a year ago.